Contents

Causes and
catalysts

In Hugo’s Les Misérables, the death of the
popular General Lamarque is seen as the catalyst for an inevitable
uprising. In fact, his death was used for an excuse for the riots
to take place.[1]
Leading up to the rebellion, there were significant economic
problems, particularly acute in the period from 1827 to 1832; the
years were marked by harvest failures, food shortages, and
increases in the cost of living, creating malcontent throughout the
classes.[1]
Additionally, the spring of 1832 saw Paris ravaged by a Europe-wide outbreak of cholera, which ended with a
death toll of 18,402 in the city. The poor neighborhoods were
particularly devastated by the disease, arousing suspicion of the
government poisoning wells.[1]
The epidemic soon claimed
two famous victims. Casimir Perier fell sick and died on May 16,
and General Lamarque died on June 2nd. Perier was given a grand
state funeral, and the funeral of the benevolent Lamarque, who
showed sympathy toward the lower class, was decided to demonstrate
the strength of the opposition.[1]
The monarchy of Louis Philippe, which had become the
government of the middle class, was now attacked from two opposite
sides at once.[2]
Before these two deaths, two parties organized insurrections for
the purpose of overturning the government. The supporters of the
older branch—the Legitimists, or Carlists as they were
called by their adversaries—made an attempt to carry off the royal
family in Paris in what become known as the Prouvaires Street Plot
in February 1832.[2]
After a failed insurrection in Marseilles led by the Duchess of
Berry, mother of Henry V,
the pretender, the Legitimists renounced war and fell back on the
press as a weapon.[2][3]

Insurrection

The younger of the groups, the Republicans, was directed by secret societies formed of the most
determined members of their party.[2]
These men began the insurrection, followed by the malcontents,
especially working-men and small boys who came to help them build
barricades and fight.[2]
These secret societies led riots similar to the June Rebellion
against the ministers of Charles X.[2]
The society for “The Rights of Man” directed the insurrection of
1832 in Paris. The Rights of Man Society was organized like an
army, divided into sections of 20 members (to evade the law which
forbade the association of more than 20 persons), each section
having a president and vice president.[2]
In 1832, during the Legitimist uprising in Marseilles, on the
occasion of the funeral of General Lamarque, the Republicans,
re-enforced by Polish, Italian,
and German refugees,
gathered around the platform on which the body rested and proposed
to proclaim a republic. An insurrection began which for one night
made them masters of the east of Paris. They were then gradually
driven back by the national guard and 25,000
soldiers and surrounded in the Saint-Martin quarter, where the
movement was crushed by the Battle of Saint-Merry Cloister (June
5-6)[2]
at the cost of some 800 killed and wounded. After this, it was
clear that the revolutionary movement was over.[3]

Les
Misérables

Illustration of Cosette in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables

The internationally acclaimed novel and musical, Les
Misérables, by Victor Hugo depicts the time leading up to
the June Rebellion, and follows the lives and interactions of
several French
characters over a twenty-year period in the early 19th century,
starting in the year of Napoleon
Bonaparte's final defeat. An outspoken republican activist in
the 19th century, Victor
Hugo’s work was unquestionably biased toward the
revolutionaries.[4] Scenes
of the Parisian students and poor planning the rebellion upon the
eve of the benevolent General Lamarque’s death are displayed
throughout the novel. The erection of barricades throughout Paris’s
narrow streets is also shown. Although a fictional work, Les
Misérables is one of the few works of literature that discusses the
June Rebellion and the events leading up to it.[5]

References

^ abcd
Harsin, Jill. Barricades: The War of the Streets in Revolutionary
Paris, 1830-1848. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2002.

^ abcdefgh
Seignobos, Charles. A Political History of Europe, Since 1814. New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1900.